New Coronavirus News from 27 Oct 2021

Coronavirus (COVID-19) at a glance – 27 October 2021 [Australian Government Department of Health, 27 Aug 2021]

This infographic provides a quick view of the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation in Australia on 27 October 2021.

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Description:
As at 3pm on 27 October 2021, a total of 163,769 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Australia, including 1,669 deaths, and approximately 28,654 active cases.

• Over the past week, there have been an average of 2,067 new cases reported each day. Of the newly reported cases, the majority have been from Victoria.

• COVID-19 cases were reported across all ages:
o The median age of all cases is 31 years (range: 0 to 106 years).
o The median age of deaths is 84 years (range: 15 to 106 years).
• There is a relatively equal ratio of male-to-female cases across most age groups.
• In 2020 case numbers reached an initial peak at the end of March. This was followed by a period of low case numbers. In mid June 2020 case numbers started to increase before reaching a secondary peak in early August 2020. Case numbers gradually declined and remained low with spikes occurring in mid-late December 2020 and mid-late April 2021. From late June 2021, case numbers increased and are currently sitting at a peak.
• Of cases with a reported place of acquisition, 77% were locally acquired.
• The overall proportion of cases under investigation in each state and territory is relatively low, indicating that public health actions, including case identification and contact tracing, is occurring in a timely manner.
• To date, more than 42,713,500 tests have been conducted nationally. Of those tests conducted, 0.4% have been positive.
• The ‘cases in aged care services’ table presents the number of cases that have been reported among care recipients in Australian Government-subsidised residential and in-home care settings in each state and territory.

COVID-19: Top news stories about the coronavirus pandemic on 27 October [World Economic Forum, 27 Aug 2021]

By Joe Myers

1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 244.5 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.96 million. More than 6.92 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

All fully-vaccinated Australian citizens and permanent residents will be able to leave the country without a special exemption from 1 November. Australians have been unable to travel abroad for 18 months without a government waiver.

The Canadian province of British Colombia will offer COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to everyone over the age of 12 from January, officials have announced.

Bahrain has approved the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 3-11 years old.

Viet Nam will begin vaccinating children against COVID-19 using the Pfizer/BioNTech jab from next month.

Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews has said his government will not apply for travel permits to allow unvaccinated tennis players to compete at the Australian Open.

Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases have hit a record high in Bulgaria, with 6,813 new cases in the previous 24 hours.

Ukraine's health minister has urged more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as COVID-19-related deaths hit a daily record of 734 yesterday.

A panel of experts has voted to recommend the US Food and Drug Administration authorize the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11.

2. EU health agency warns of severe winter flu season for elderly
The European Union's public health agency has warned that the upcoming influenza season in Europe could be severe for the elderly and those with weak immunity. The agency added that it could put a greater burden on health systems already under strain by COVID-19.

The main reported subtype of the influenza virus seen in the EU and European Economic Area disproportionately affects older people and is associated with lower vaccine effectiveness, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said.

"The early detections of the A (H3N2) subtype are an indication that the upcoming flu season could be severe, although we cannot know for sure what the upcoming flu season will look like," said Pasi Penttinen, ECDC's head of influenza programme.

Penttinen also urged health workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu.

3. US and Indonesia call for new G20 forum to prepare for next pandemic
The world's largest economies should create a forum to facilitate global coordination for the next pandemic, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Tuesday. A new financing facility should also be created to keep up with emerging threats, the two said in a letter to their G20 colleagues.

"While we are making progress in fighting COVID-19, we also face a stark reality: this will not be the last pandemic," they wrote ahead of Friday's joint meeting of G20 health and finance ministers. "We must not lose this opportunity to demonstrate leadership with a decisive commitment to act."

They said that the forum would allow health and finance ministers to better cooperate and coordinate prevention, detection, information sharing and any necessary response.

Uttarakhand corona update: 17 cases found on 27 October [Uttarakhand News Network, 27 Aug 2021]

In the last 24 hours, 17 new corona infected have been found in the state. At the same time, not a single patient has died. While 18 patients were sent home after recovery. The number of active patients has come down to 150. Whereas on Tuesday there were 156 active patients in the state.

According to the bulletin issued by the Health Department, the test report of 13417 samples has come negative on Wednesday. Not a single infected patient has been found in seven districts of Bageshwar, Champawat, Nainital, Pithoragarh, Rudraprayag, Tehri and Udham Singh Nagar. At the same time, one each has been found in Almora, Haridwar and Pauri, three in Chamoli, nine in Dehradun and two in Uttarkashi.

Infection rate reached 0.13 percent
So far, the total number of corona infected in the state has increased to 343861. Of these, 330163 people have been cured. A total of 7399 people have lost their lives due to corona in the state. The recovery rate of the state has been recorded at 96.02 percent and infection rate of 0.13 percent.